Does Hormone‐Replacement Therapy Prevent Fractures in Early Postmenopausal Women?

The purpose of this population‐based prospective cohort study was to examine the effect of hormone‐replacement therapy (HRT) on the risk of fractures. The study population consisted of 7217 postmenopausal women aged 47‐56 years (mean, 53.3 years) at baseline from data taken from the Kuopio Osteoporo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of bone and mineral research 2002-03, Vol.17 (3), p.528-533
Main Authors: Randell, Kaisa M., Honkanen, Risto J., Kröger, Heikki, Saarikoski, Seppo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Cohort Studies
Estrogen Replacement Therapy
Female
Finland - epidemiology
Forearm Injuries - prevention & control
fractures
Fractures, Bone - epidemiology
Fractures, Bone - prevention & control
Hormones. Endocrine system
hormone‐replacement therapy
Humans
Medical sciences
Menopause
Middle Aged
Pharmacology. Drug treatments
Prospective Studies
Risk Factors
women
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Summary:The purpose of this population‐based prospective cohort study was to examine the effect of hormone‐replacement therapy (HRT) on the risk of fractures. The study population consisted of 7217 postmenopausal women aged 47‐56 years (mean, 53.3 years) at baseline from data taken from the Kuopio Osteoporosis Risk Factor and Prevention Study (OSTPRE) in Finland. We compared fracture incidences between HRT users and nonusers. A total of 679 (9.4%) women recorded validated fractures during the 5‐year follow‐up. Of these, 268 (39%) women had a distal forearm fracture. Two thousand six hundred seventy women (37%) had used HRT >6 months during the follow‐up—one‐half of them continuously. The relative risk, estimated as hazard ratio with Cox regression, was 0.69 (95% CI, 0.58‐0.82) for any fracture and 0.49 (0.36‐0.66) for distal forearm fracture among HRT users as compared with never‐users. After adjusting for age, body mass index (BMI), number of chronic health disorders, fracture history, and time since menopause (independent risk factors) the corresponding risks were 0.67 (0.55‐0.81) and 0.53 (0.37‐0.74), respectively. The respective adjusted risks for continuous HRT users were 0.62 (0.48‐0.79) and 0.41 (0.26‐0.67). The adjusted risk of other than distal forearm fracture was 0.74 (0.55‐0.98). The results suggest that HRT has a beneficial effect on prevention of fractures in general and on that of distal forearm fracture in particular in early postmenopausal women.
ISSN:0884-0431
1523-4681
DOI:10.1359/jbmr.2002.17.3.528